Meet the new oppressor, same as the old oppressor

If this were April 1, I’d bet that the following headline from ABC News is a joke: “IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office.” But the joke is on us. Here’s the story:

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant has been pushed out the door. Today he announced that he would retire on June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office on May 8, a week ago.

But Ingram remains in her post. Perhaps the administration believes that Obamacare is too important to be entrusted to an honest, non-overtly partisan bureaucratic.

Rep. Rep. Marlin Stutzman nailed it when he said today: “Obamacare empowers the agency that just violated the public’s trust by secretly targeting conservative groups. Even by Washington’s standards, that’s unacceptable.”